What Happens During a Session?
My Style and Approach
I welcome and approach my clients in a caring, warm and non-judgmental way.
I focus on what is important to you in every session: your issues, problems and the changes you want to make in your life based on your values, goals and aspirations.
What Can We Do Together?
A typical session is comprised of three parts, please find these below. If you wish, we can leave out some of these to accommodate your needs.
Conversation
Together we will explore in more depth the issue or change that is important to you. I will ask targeted questions to bring important details to our attention. I will listen non-judgmentally with care and compassion. I will frequently play back what you are saying to make sure I understood you correctly and to highlight important details. Occasionally, I may also reframe or paraphrase what you are saying to help us look at your issue or goal from a different perspective or to uncover new details. Often the conversation alone is useful in helping people move toward the change they want in their lives.
Exercises
We will do simple, practical exercises to help you implement the changes you want. These exercises include visualisations, creative uses of language, guided mindfulness-like exercises, rephrasing things, and problem-solving exercises. Every exercise I use is supported by decades-long research into how the human mind works. Exercises fall into two categories: 1) Discovery exercises: These are designed to help us explore how parts of our minds work. This learning can be used to implement important life changes. We will do these only once to explore or discover something. 2) Skill-building exercises: These build mental muscles that can be used in your everyday life to deal with challenges and difficulties and implement the changes you desire. They require regular practice. We can practice them together and you can practice them on your own to speed things up. I may also share some useful metaphors during our sessions.
Learning About the Human Mind
Many clients find a sense of safety in understanding the basics of how their mind works. This understanding enables them to achieve the life improvements they want faster. Also, a little theory, but not too much, can be useful in orienting our practice and our conversations. Theory about how the human mind works should not make up more than 5-10% of our total time.
